Retail-based clinic operator MinuteClinic, a division of CVS Caremark, and Southern California healthcare system Sharp HealthCare have entered into a clinical affiliation to enhance access to healthcare services throughout San Diego County.

Google has officially unveiled its testing program for Google Shopping Express, its new online delivery service in the San Francisco Bay area, signing up with retailers like Target, Walgreens and Raley's to allow customers to receive items directly from store shelves at their homes within a day.

The program has been widely described as an effort by Google to compete with e-commerce giant Amazon, but what sets Google Shopping Express apart is its sourcing partnership with brick-and-mortar retailers, particularly Target, which itself has made significant investments in omnichannel retail, most recently with its purchases of two online cooking-equipment retailers. As a whole slew of developments over the past couple of weeks has shown, omnichannel is becoming a key component of many retailers' business.

To help raise awareness of senior hunger in Rhode Island, CVS Caremark VP workforce strategies and chief diversity officer David Casey teamed up this week with U.S. Sen. Jack Reed and Meals on Wheels of Rhode Island executive director Heather Amaral to deliver hot meals to homebound seniors in Cranston.

Patients with coronary artery disease who are adherent to their prescribed medications can save the healthcare system up to $868 per patient per year, according the findings of a recent study conducted by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and CVS Caremark.

MinuteClinic president and SVP/associate chief medical officer of CVS Caremark, Andrew Sussman, traveled to London this week to discuss how MinuteClinic is improving care and access at substantially lower cost, the company has announced.

CVS Caremark has announced that it will highlight how medication adherence plays a vital role in helping older Americans on their path to better health at the 2013 Annual American Society on Aging Conference, which is being held in Chicago this week.

Shifting patients away from hospital emergency rooms and into retail-based and urgent care walk-in clinics can significantly lower healthcare costs, improve access to care and reduce the impact of such chronic diseases as diabetes and hyperlipidemia, two health benefits experts asserted in a recent online presentation.

Much of the policy-making conversation about health care in recent years has sought to highlight anticipated cost savings from technology innovation. Critics say this is an outgrowth of the American "fix-it" mentality. Others say technical solutions have yet to take hold outside of medical accounting applications. But there is general agreement that in the area of technologies to nurture medication adherence, the ground remains fertile.

Rite Aid announced Friday that it had expanded its "virtual clinic" model to additional markets, now offering NowClinic Online Care service in 58 stores.

Retail clinics are an area in which Rite Aid has not invested to the same degree as Walgreens and CVS, but NowClinic shows that there are more ways to offer clinical services in a retail pharmacy setting than building an actual clinic. In 2011, Rite Aid became the first to provide such virtual clinics in a retail pharmacy setting when it launched the program as a pilot in nine stores in Detroit.

MinuteClinic, the retail healthcare division of CVS Caremark and North Shore-LIJ Health System, one of the nation's largest healthcare providers, have signed a clinical collaboration to enhance access to high-quality healthcare services in Nassau and Suffolk counties and the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island.

CVS Caremark president and CEO Larry Merlo presented a $50,000 check Tuesday to the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center before attending a luncheon sponsored by the Economic Club of Pittsburgh.

It's another innovative, yet simple, "Made by Mom" product in the pediatric section. Iris Shamus, the mom and entrepreneur behind AllerMates, developed a line of fun characters that kids won't have a problem wearing and will alert caregivers to specific food allergies.

The YMCA is offering a demonstration project to show that its YMCA Diabetes Prevention Program — part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's broader National Diabetes Prevention Program — can lower the incidence of Type 2 diabetes and reduce medical costs incurred by Medicare. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation is funding the project, whereby YMCAs in 17 communities that deliver the program will offer it at no cost to 10,000 Medicare enrollees over the next three years, and the YMCA expects it to save Medicare $4.2 million over three years and $53 million over six years.

It's been said that, "It takes a village to raise a child," and because chronic disease is an issue that affects communities as a whole - not just individuals - it would make sense for community-based organizations to target a growing national health crisis like the diabetes epidemic.

More than 20 athletes from Special Olympics Florida experienced what it’s like to be a major league ball player when they took part in a recent CVS Caremark All Kids Can Baseball Camp during Red Sox Spring Training.

MinuteClinic and Greenville Hospital System — South Carolina's largest health system, with five medical campuses, outpatient and specialty centers and a large network of physician practices — have entered into a clinical affiliation to enhance access to healthcare services in upstate South Carolina.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has announced the winners of a competition it sponsored to increase awareness and use of evidence-based healthcare tools in retail health settings, the government agency said.

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In this beauty report, Drug Store News takes a deeper dive into some of the leading trends that are reshaping beauty.more ...

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